MESAP brings together partners from Western Europe (Asfar), Eastern Europe (NAMBA) & the Middle East (Cukurova Universitesi Adana Meslek Yuksekokulu) to develop youth enterprise training, digital skills, while promoting social action & civic responsibility to develop 15 young people over a period of 24 months. The project also promotes Youth Workers skills & inter-organizational sharing & best practice through Youth Worker Training & Job shadowing activity. MESAP's 3 Partners, based in the UK; Bulgaria; and Turkey, will work together to share Youth work best practice, develop youth professionals skills, attitudes towards Enterprise & Self-employment and develop a training programme to address youth unemployment, through which to support young people and promote their Enterprise Skills, Digital Skills & Social Action ideas, offering an alternative to traditional modes of employment. The MESAP delivery model is broken down into 6 stages: 1) Partnership Implementation Activity 2) Enterprising the Youth Sector: Youth Worker Training 3) Youth Enterprise Skills 4) Youth Social Action projects 5) Digitalising Enterprise - mobility activities 6) Youth Worker Job Shadowing 1) Partnership Implementation Activity encourages partner cohesion and cooperation, while building strong links & finalising a unique programme design. Partners will hold 2 further Transnational development meetings, in the UK, Bulgaria and Turkey, hosted by individual partner countries. 2) Enterprising the Youth Sector: Youth Worker training will deliver 7 days worth of training for youth work professionals to develop their skills in Enterprise Skills, Digital Skills and Social Action, while increasing their awareness, knowledge, attitudes and the benefits towards self-employment and social entrepreneurship, & supporting young people to mobilise Digital skills to establish their businesses or social action projects. 3) Youth Enterprise Skills is a 6 week Skills development programme, held in each country for young people interested in learning about Self-Employment, Business & Enterprise, with particular focus on how young people can set up their own business. Young people will develop Base Skills including: Communication; Budgeting; Inter-personal; Leadership; Team-playing skills; followed by Enterprise-focused Skills including: What is Self-employment; Brainstorming & Business ideas; How to establish a Company; Business Plan development; HMRC, Tax & the Law; Strategy; Fundraising & Investments; Marketing & Competitors; National Enterprise Allowance; Presentation & Selling your ideas Skills; Partnership-working; Book Keeping basics; & many other key Enterprise Skills & themes required to become Self-employed and establish a business. Young People will also develop basic Language Skills in 3 different languages: Bulgarian; Turkish; & English to promote their Unique Selling Points as businesses and also on their CVs. Furthermore, all young people will complete Employability Skills training. 4) Youth Social Action Projects will involve young people working together to understand, develop skills and launch a short Social Action project to benefit their Community, establishing the next generation of Social Entrepreneurs in the UK, Bulgaria & Turkey. This 6 week programme, will allow young people to use their new Enterprise Skills, to develop, mobilise & make a difference in their community. 5) Digitalising Enterprise - mobility activity brings young participants from each Country together to learn how digital technology can be used to benefit their Enterprises for 7 days. The activity will involve in-depth Digital Skills training, using systems that can make their Businesses more efficient, reduce costs & improve their general and specialist ICT skills. A long side Digital Skills, key themes will include International Enterprise & Partnerships; Global Business; Cross Cultural Awareness; Language Skills. 6) Youth Worker Job Shadowing - Asfar UK Youth Worker will participate in a job shadowing activity with Cukurova Universitesi Adana Meslek Yuksekokulu IN Adana, Turkey, for 4 months to understand their youth work structures, activities & mobilisation of digital tools to promote youth engagement, skills growth & long term employment & enterprise development. With specific focus on understanding the different types of youth engagement techniques utilised in Turkey and methodologies, to be mobilised within Asfar's own youth delivery in the UK & in future international projects. The knowledge, expertise & the outcomes will be researched, analyzed & published through 3 MESAP Youth Worker instruction publications: Enterprising the Youth Sector; Digitalizing Enterprise; & the MESAP final manual for use amongst the Youth Sector, promoting Self-employment, work-focused Digital Skills & Social Entrepreneurship throughout Europe, offering real examples through the activities, job shadowing information & tools.
MESAP was designed to address the following issues: - Barriers to Youth Enterprise & Digital Skills - Barriers to Youth Social Action - High Youth unemployment - Low Skills amongst young people - Youth Workers attitudes & experience in Enterprise as an alternative to Employment - Long term partnership relationships - Limited free materials for Youth Organisations interested in implementing Enterprise, Digital, Social Action youth projects The main objectives were very wide and it became clear early on that this small strategic partnership was not going to change these issues as a standalone 2 year project. However, the project did work on these subjects and for those directly involved had a positive impact. Outputs Completed Enterprise Skills training for young people: Achieved Completed Digital Skills training for young people: Achieved Completed Social Action Skills for young people: Achieved Increased skills, awareness and experience of Youth Workers and partner organisations in the delivery of strategic partnerships, enterprise and social action projects: Achieved Change Youth Workers attitudes towards Enterprise & experience through training: Achieve – those directly involved. Intellectual Output X 3: Achieved 6 Young people who participated in this programme establishing their own Enterprise: currently being monitored 5 Young people who participated in this programme establish their own Social Action project and actively making a difference: currently being monitored – so far, most UK and Bulgarian participants have been involved in further social action and good citizen activities – more long term monitoring is required. 10 Young people moving closer to Employment, Training, Apprenticeships or back into Education: Achieved. All young people are closer to moving towards EET (+Apprenticeships). Long term monitoring is required to see how sustainable this is. All Young people more prepared for their next step: Achieved. Changes and improvements: Young People: Young people will be more engaged and an aware of Enterprise and Self-employment as an alternative to Employment: Achieved. Young people will understand the international opportunities available to them: Achieved. Young people will increase their Skills, including: Enterprise; Digital; Communication, Inter-personal, Linguistic, Financial management, Leadership, Team, and Life Skills: Achieved. Young people will be job ready and have developed real work-based, enterprise and vocational skills, suitable across a wide range of sectors: Achieved. Young people will be more committed to giving back to their community and more aware of their social responsibilities and citizenship: Currently being monitored. Young people will be more committed to working in partnerships to develop, create positive change in their communities and actively take control of their future: Currently being monitored. Young people will be more culturally aware and intrigued by Europe, the EU and their EU Citizenship: Amongst those directly involved – Achieved, this will be further monitored. Young people will increase their Digital skills suitable for a work place environment: Achieved in relation to the training in the programme. Youth Workers Youth Workers and staff participating in the programme will develop their Skills, Experiences and awareness of Enterprise, Social Action and international youth work methods & tools: Achieved Youth Workers and staff participating in the programme will understand how partnership work on an international level: Achieved. Youth Workers and staff participating in the programme will be aware of young peoples' needs: Achieved – short term, further monitoring required. Youth Workers and staff participating in the programme will have the skills required to engaged isolated young people especially those at risk of long term unemployment: Achieved – short term, further monitoring required. Youth Workers will gain experience of their sector in a different environment and new tools: Achieved. Youth Workers will be more aware on how to mobilise digital technology for youth work: Achieved. Partners & Organisations Participating partners will understand the best project management approaches to strategic partnership programmes and the of Enterprise and Social Action projects – Achieved, however more work around this is necessary for some partners. Participating partners will develop and appreciate the benefit of Digital tools for learning, project management etc – Achieved. Partners will understand, develop and put into practice international best practices, robust risk assessments – Achieved in theory – long term monitoring required to see the overall impact. Partners will develop and put in place more Online and Social Media tools to support young people – To some extent. Turkish partner was not able to work on all areas due to the repercussions of the attempted coup in Turkey. Partners will capacity building themselves to be strong partners,